


Serendipity

by Ceallaigh



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo on the run, Corellia, F/M, For What Was Lost Is Now Found, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylo Ren Redemption, Post-TLJ, Prodigal son, Rey is good at find lost things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-09-25 23:16:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17130569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceallaigh/pseuds/Ceallaigh
Summary: When she had decided to start shepherding the Adept, Rey had made a vow to herself to help them all—even those imprisoned by their own internal darkness. Camouflaged with the cuff, Kylo would never know that Hux’s war dog was closing in on him until it was too late. That was one death she didn’t want weighing down on her conscience. She’d had the opportunity twice to kill him, but she was still convinced his life was not hers to take. The Force still had a plan for Ben Solo, that she was certain, and securing his safety was just as important and making sure the little girl she sought made it off world and survived as well.





	Serendipity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [second_chances](https://archiveofourown.org/users/second_chances/gifts).



> For second_chances who wanted a Kylo Ren on the Run after TLJ.
> 
> Hope I hit all the elements of the prompts and you enjoy this fic !

 

The first thing Rey noted when she touched down in Coronet City was the complete absence of color. Grey buildings reaching endless toward a grey sky. In the distance, the darkened sea churned angrily and extended toward a colorless horizon. If Takodana represented everything verdant and alive in the galaxy, then Corellia was the industrial antithesis of it.

She pulled her rain poncho from her pack and pulled it over her shoulders, a perfect camouflage for her lightsaber that she kept latched to her hip. Hopefully this mission would be quick. As much as she loved the rain, she didn’t fancy being soaked to the bone once the sun went down and the temperature rapidly approached freezing.

BB-8, her constant companion on these covert operations beeped out a question as she checked her blaster before securing it next to her lightsaber on her hip.

“Yes, I’m sure she’s here,” she replied. “The intel’s been consistent for weeks. She’s somewhere in Shantytown.”

The droid added his concern before handing Rey her pack. She swung it on to her back before she added, “Same way I’ve found the others. I’ll be able to sense her once I get close enough.”

He chirped something about Rey’s left wrist and pointed out the obvious.

“Oh right,” she sheepishly answered and unclipped the cuff that had become her constant companion over the past year. As she did so, her connection to the Force returned, and it was a comforting presence once again and welcomed its enveloping embrace. The world came into focus a bit sharper, and she could feel the Corellian lifeforms that teemed all around her in ways that they did not just a moment before.

It had been almost four hundred days—she never could shake that habit of marking time by counting each day—since she had started masking herself from others that could command the Force. It had taken a while to adapt to the complete absence of the Force when she wore the suppression cuff. At first it had made her feel off-balance as if she was missing a limb. But that silence around her when she cloaked herself from others merely nagged at her like dull ache. While it cut her off from the Force’s powerful resources when she wore it, the cuff hid her from the First Order’s Inquisitors armed with Force detectors that made hunting the Adept down all the easier.

The Purge, as many had started calling it, was one of the Order’s first edicts that self-styled Grand Marshall Armitage Hux—the regime’s Supreme Leader—had issued once he had wrested power from Kylo Ren in a bloody coup. His orders were simple: hunt down any and all Force adept denizens and snuff them out. It didn’t matter if they were untrained and not a threat to anyone. They were all marked for death. He wanted them gone.

Her heart ached as her thoughts went to Kylo Ren for a fleeting moment. Following Hux’s coup, Kylo had just vanished. Their bond had opened for a just a moment. It wasn’t enough to reveal his location or who was attacking him. Deep in her bones she had known that he’d been overthrown. A gasp, and their eyes had met for just a beat. Blood had trickled from his mouth and he had dropped to his knees as the connection had slammed shut moments later.

Kylo had been attacked, but she had yet to feel his death. He hadn’t been murdered that day, despite Hux’s public declaration that he’d been eliminated. She was certain of that. Something didn’t ring true about that announcement.

But in those moments, Kylo Ren had vanished all together. No distress, just a void where his signature had once been in the Force’s ever-turning flow.

It was if he no longer existed at all.

Had Ben—no, Kylo. He’d chosen to be that monster after he had styled himself the leader of the First Order—managed to escape and camouflage himself like she had?

Perhaps this was why Hux had ordered the Purge in the first place. Was he hunting Ren and taking out other Adept as collateral damage? After all, it’s why she raced against time to find the Adept and shepherd them to safety. If she didn’t locate them, Hux’s war dog Anukh Ren would. A knight previously loyal to Kylo, he was the Adept Hux had very publicly exempted from the Purge. He was the Supreme Leader’s hunter. Hidden behind an expressionless mask, he was the strong arm of the Hux’s regime of fear, and he hunted down the Adept with merciless efficiency, claiming nearly a dozen Adept from all corners of the galaxy.

Yet she had no intentions of him finding and murdering another one. She would not let him winnow out the light, leaving only darkness. She was not interested in creating another generation of Jedi to follow the same mistakes of the extinct Jedi Order. As good as their intentions had seen, the Jedi Order had created monsters with names like Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. No, her job was vastly simpler than that. Her mission was to locate the Adept before he did and relocated them to a safe haven where they could grow in their relationship with the Force. When the dust settled, she’d help them understand the great mystery that had always been a part of their identities.

BB-8 tweeted another question, drawing her from her reverie.

“No, I don’t know what she looks like,” Rey answered. “Just be ready to leave in a hurry, okay?”

The droid let out a long whine. He wasn’t letting her leave until they both understood the logistics of this retrieval.

“I know,” she said. “the spaceport will be crawling with immigration officers. If I can’t sneak her through the port, we’ll just have to improvise extract her a different way like we always do.”

She headed toward the exit, hit the button and watched the ramp descend. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” she reassured. “I’ll signal you once I make contact.”

o.o.o.o

The rain pounded down in unrelenting sheets as Rey wandered her way through Shantytown, a slum that spread out in all directions where the poorest of Corellia’s downtrodden eked out an existence. Even though she grew in abject poverty, nothing prepared her for the stench of the millions crowded into row by row of shacks fashioned from not much more than reclaimed garbage. Corrugated durasteel, reclaimed hatches from cannibalized shuttles and not much more than tarps stretched out toward the horizon. She gagged as the undercurrent of sewage paired with the smell of freighter oil wafted past. With an outdated sewer system at best, Shantytown’s streets flowed with rivulets of raw waste. It pooled in puddles, adding to the slurry of waste.

It would be nothing short of a miracle if Rey located the girl. Her other extractions had never been hidden among countless millions. She had to concentrate if she had any chance to find the little girl’s signature in the endless stream of inhabitants rushing past her in both directions.

“Watch where you’re going!” a Twi’lek male growled as his shoulder collided with hers. His lekku twitched angrily like a pit viper about to strike. She pulled her hood over her head before she offered a curt apology.

Rey rounded a corner and headed to what looked like a market. A butcher sold cut of unidentifiable meat from a makeshift display case. Dead waterfowl hung above him strung by their feet. The smell of grilled meat floated through the air, and Rey’s mouth watered. It had been a while since she ate last, but unlike many in the slums, she knew where her next meal would come from.

She needed to concentrate, and she closed her eyes for a moment to allow the Force to provide her clarity and dampen the surrounding noise. If she could just narrow down the girl’s location, the slums would not seem as daunting.

Rey took a calming breath and reached out into the eddies of the Force that surrounded each living creature in the market. As she did so, the sound of an infant crying in the distance faded to nothing. Then the pelting rain melted away as well.

It was then that she sensed the girl—a human with a swirling and uncorrupted balance of light and darkness came into focus. She was near, no more than a click away. Rey opened her mind a bit more and tried to focus on the girl’s face and location in the maze of life.

But as she started to cast out into the Force a bit more, her focus shattered when she heard his voice.

He didn’t stand out in the Force like the blazing fire he normally did, but there was no mistaking his voice above the din.

“These transponders were worth twice as much last week, and you know it, Bahtu!” he snarled.

Rey opened his eyes and spun around. While he still sounded like Kylo Ren the man standing before the junk trader was a mere shadow of the man she had once known. His hair was much longer than she had remembered, tied into a messy knot on the back of his head. A patchy beard covered his chin and did little to hide the scar that bisected the side of his face.

He was much thinner than when he’d controlled the First Order, and he was dressed in the drab colors of every other pauper that surrounded them in the market. She was tempted to draw closer, but decided against it. She didn’t want to run the risk of startling him.

“Then try your luck with Etter Suh,” the leathery Besalisk answered with a sneer. “You could get lucky, or you could wind up with nothing. Make me a deal, and your chances of waking up with a cracked skull go way down, Neberrie.”

Kylo glared at the trader and tucked the salvaged parts back into his satchel. She immediately recognized the transaction. He was being lowballed and wasn’t going to settle until his price was met.

Somewhere along the line, the mighty Kylo Ren had become a scavenger.

“One portion,” the trader said, “and that’s my final offer.”

Kylo didn’t budge and did his best to stare his adversary down, Obviously, it wasn’t a fair bargain.

“When was the last time you filled your stomach with something that didn’t come from a dumpster?” Bahtu asked, clearly knowing the answer.

Rey couldn’t help but notice how Kylo’s jaw imperceivably clenched a bit tighter. She recognized the response all too well—the pride that kept him from answering, the resolve to show no vulnerabilities that could be exploited and the desperation to not let anyone know your belly was painfully empty and begging to be filled. She knew how easy it was to settle for less, but that meant worse deals in the future and even more nights of going to sleep hungry with never enough. It was oh so easy to settle for scraps and trade for just a few bites of food no matter how stale or spoiled. It was a desperation she had lived with for years, and it was something she didn’t wish on anyone.

Even him.

When Kylo didn’t answer, Bahtu waved him away. “It’s my final offer,” he said. “Either take it now, or don’t bother coming back. There are dozens of scumrats that will work twice as hard and won’t argue with me.”

Kylo stood his ground for a second or two before plunging his hand back into his satchel, retrieving one of the transponders and slamming it on the counter.

Bahtu smiled as he picked up the piece of junk and surveyed its quality. Kylo had done a decent job cleaning the grime off the aged engine part. The trader didn’t bother to look up at Kylo. Rather he extended his right lower and demanded, “The other one. You told me you had two. The deal was for both.”

Kylo let out an irritated sigh before retrieving the second transponder. “Fine,” he snarled as he shoved it into Bahtu’s waiting hand.

The dealer swiftly tucked both bits of scrap beneath the counter while tossing his payment on the counter with his fourth hand. “A pleasure doing business with you, boy,” he said with a smile as Kylo snatched up the single ration packet and tucked it away.

Kylo glared at the trader for a moment as if he was biting back his own words before calling out, “Naboo!”

The brindle-colored dog that had obediently been lying at Kylo’s feet perked up its ears and sprung to its feet.

“Let’s go,” he added, and the dog followed at his side as he stormed out of the market.

Rey turned away so that he couldn’t see her. As he strode past, he raked back the wet strands of hair that had worked their way out of the gathered knot and tucked them behind an ear. It was then that she noticed the titanisteel cuff on his wrist.

No wonder they couldn’t detect each other. He was masked from the Force as well. Somewhere along the line, he had taken measures to vanish into the masses that had no idea what it meant to feel the Force flow through them.

He hadn’t just vanished. He didn’t want to be found.

She waited until he disappeared into the crowd before she started to follow him. The girl could wait a bit. She had time to still find her and slip back into the safety of hyperspace. But for now, she set after a second potential retrieval. She now had two Adept to extract before Anukh Ren came for their lives. The cuff, the slums, they each bought him a bit of time. But he, like Rey, was one of Anukh’s primary targets. It was only a matter of time before someone recognized him and notified either bounty hunters or Anukh and his Inquisitors.

When she had decided to start shepherding the Adept, Rey had made a vow to herself to help them all—even those imprisoned by their own internal darkness. Camouflaged with the cuff, Kylo would never know that Hux’s war dog was closing in on him until it was too late. That was one death she didn’t want weighing down on her conscience. Twice she’d had the opportunity to kill him, but she was still convinced his life was not hers to take. The Force still had a plan for Ben Solo, that she was certain, and securing his safety was just as important and making sure the little girl she sought made it off world and survived as well.

Rey didn’t let him get too far ahead in the crowd. She narrowly missed becoming the unintended target of a bilge pot’s contents as a weathered old woman dumped it into the street. The stench was overpowering, and it took everything in her power to suppress the bile rising in her throat. A pair of children set empty kettles on the ground to catch the rain water while a woman offered the galaxy’s oldest business at the corner for twenty credits. And she was pretty sure a pair of Zabraks were dealing spice behind a dumpster. Shantytown was a horrible as she had imagined. Survival depended on little more than hustle and trade. It wasn’t an existence for the weak.

She sped up when Kylo turned right and headed down a back street then cut left even deeper into the labyrinth of makeshift roads. He stopped in front of a shack and peered over his shoulder before he quickly entered an access code to the lock’s console. It wasn’t as though he could keep any out of the ramshackle dwelling. It wouldn’t take much more than a swift kick to collapse a wall. After all, the shack was not much more than pieced together bits of scrap and garbage.

He inadvertently left the door partially ajar as he entered the structure. It allowed Rey a window into his life. The last thing she wanted to do was startle him. Instead, she stood at the door and peered through the crack for a few moments. The room was small, but looked warm and inviting. Everything was neat and tidy. His meager belongings each had their own place—a single chair and table on one side of the room, a narrow sleeping pallet on the other side.

Once inside, he activated a small lantern that sat on the top of a tiny table that looked like it could only seat one. It cast the room in a soft glow that was an inviting contrast to the constant deluge of rain outside. Next, he stooped and retrieved the metal bowl on the floor and filled it with water from a jug on the counter in the back corner. His dog eagerly lapped at the water the moment he returned the bowl the floor.

Now that Naboo was settled, he set his pack on the counter and peeled off his soaked jacket before hanging it on the hook tacked into the support beam reaching upward from the middle of the room. He hummed to himself as he pulled the tie from his hair and shook the tangled mess out before he turned his attention once again to his pack.

Kylo made a disgusted look as he pulled the ration Bahtu had tossed at him from his pack. “Not much here,” he said to the dog. Her ears perked up as he tore open the plastifilm wrapper. “Guess we need to scrap tomorrow. At least tonight we won’t go to bed hungry.”

He opened the cupboard and pulled out a shallow saucer that Rey immediately recognized as a polystarch dish. He poured a small amount of water into the saucer before sprinkling the bread powder from the portion into it to make a slurry that he stirred with his finger. Within seconds, the rounded loaf emerged from the dish, its surface cracking as it expanded and fully formed a portion of bread.

He left the bread on the counter as he turned his attention to the accompanying vegmeat patty. Rey could still taste its bland flavor on her tongue. A vile facsimile for meat, it had a metallic aftertaste that added to any meal. She’d eaten more than her share in her life. It was the food of the disenfranchised. Sure, it was originally designed to feed the faceless masses of first the Empire, then the First Order stormtroopers, but it had become the currency and staple of poverty. It was what you ate where there was nothing else.

Kylo tossed the patty into a waiting heating plate. It didn’t take long before it sizzled and started to cook. While one could eat it cold, it was marginally better if consumed while warm. Rey recognized its distinct aroma as it wafted out the door. After a few moments, he tried to use his fingers to flip it to properly cook the other side. As he did so, he quickly dropped it back in the pan and muttered a curse under his breath before popping his burned finger into his mouth.

Once the patty was cooked, he used the tip of his knife to lift it from the pan and set it on a waiting plate. He let it cool a bit while he turned his attention back to the polystarch. He tore at the loaf and nibbled on a small piece before tearing off another. His dog sat patiently at his feet.

“Sit,” he gently commanded, and the pup obeyed. Its eyes were trained on the chunk of bread in Kylo’s hand.

“Stay,” he added as he set the piece of bread on her snout. Kylo smiled at the dog, something she had never seen him do before. It was obvious he cared greatly for the animal.

The pup sat patiently waiting for the next command until he said, “Okay!” With that, the dog used its snout to toss the bread into the air before catching and devouring it.

“Good girl!” he praised her as he rubbed behind her ear before turning his attention back to the vegmeat. It cooled enough, and he used a knife to cut it in half. He kept one half of the patty and sent the plate with its other half on the floor for the dog.

“Wish I had more for you,” he told the pup as nibbled at his half of the vegmeat.

Rey couldn’t see what the dog did to grab Kylo’s attention, but he glanced silently at her for a second. He set the vegmeat beside the polystarch then headed toward the near corner of the room that she could not see. It sounded like he was rummaging through something in a box. Rey tried to peek in a little more to get a better view. But as she leaned a little closer, he swung the door open and she was staring point blank at the business end of a blaster with the man who had once been Kylo Ren glaring right at her, his finger on the trigger, his face a steely mask of controlled contempt.

A muscle twitched almost imperceivably beneath his left eye and he stared at her a moment stunned by their unexpected reunion. Naboo stood at his side, her ears pulled back, teeth bared and issuing a warning growl.

Kylo closed his eyes for a moment and took a calming breath before he lowered the blaster. He placed his free hand on the dog’s head and wordlessly commanded her to back down.

“Lurking outside someone’s doorway is the quickest way to get shot around here, Jedi,” he said, his finger still on the trigger. He was on the defensive, no question about that, and the last thing she wanted to do was corner him like a wounded animal.

“You’re more likely to get robbed if you don’t secure your door,” she shot back. She’d been beaten and robbed too many times to count growing up alone on Jakku. She was surprised he would make such a foolish error and wondered how many times he’d been attacked for such carelessness. Without the Force, he’d be just as vulnerable to robbers and thugs as anyone else living in the slums.

“You’re not going to shoot me, so put that thing away,” she added with confidence.

It took a moment before he realized she was right and he tucked the weapon into the back of his waistband and smoothed his tunic over it.

“You here to bring me to justice, or whatever the Resistance is calling it these days?” he sneered. “Or are you collecting a bounty? So what is the going rate for my head these days? Has it topped a million credits yet?”

“Neither,” she answered. “I wasn’t even looking specifically for you, but I just … just saw you in the market, so I followed you.”

“Here I am,” he replied. “Since you aren’t here to kill me or turn me in, why exactly are you here, Rey?”

The way he said her name always tugged at her heart. The forced malice between them always seemed to melt away the few times she’d heard him say her name out loud. After all this time, it still made her feel a little less alone in the universe.

“I guess I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” she said. “Since the Purge started, I hadn’t been able to sense you anywhere.”

“Maybe I wanted it that way,” he said with a shrug, still not letting her cross the threshold of his home.

She pointed to the cuff on his wrist. “That certainly helps with your vanishing act.”

Kylo snugged his sleeve over his cuff as if he wanted to hide it like a secret. “I’m surprised you aren’t masking yourself with one,” he noted. “I’m sure Anukh is hunting for you, too.”

The rain continued to pelt down in unrelenting sheets. Lighting danced across the sky as the storm rolled in. She smiled for a moment before answering, “Who’s to say I don’t have one?”

Lightning danced across the sky once again. Thunder answered it in reply. Kylo shifted his weight to one foot and asked, “So why are you really here?”

Soaked to the bone, she could feel the cold creeping in, and she fought back the urge to start shivering. She knew the game well. Never show weakness toward your opponent. Two could play at that game.

“Why don’t you invite me in, and I’ll tell you,” she answered, cocking an eyebrow.

He gifted her with a small grin before stepping away from the door and wordlessly welcoming her in. She pulled her hood back as she crossed the threshold. While it wasn’t all that much warmer than outside, his home was dry. Devoid of anything personal, it revealed little about the man that lived there—no comforts that weren’t necessary, just four walls, a roof and the bare essentials.

“Your negotiating skills are rubbish,” she said digging in a pocket. Retrieving a ration bar, she tossed it to him.

Kylo caught the bar with one hand and shot back with a tinge of shame creeping into, “I don’t need your charity, Rey.”

“I know you don’t,” she answered back. “But you’re going to starve to death if you always settle for the first offer the dealer gives you. That creep was right back at the market. You should’ve gone to the other dealer.”

He tore open the wrapper and took a bite of the ration bar. “I did,” he mumbled with a mouth full of food. He quickly chewed it up and swallowed before he continued. “Etter Suh only offered me a quarter portion about an hour ago. That was the better deal.”

He took another bite before taking the second half of the bar out of the wrapper and was about to feed the other half of it to Naboo when Rey stopped him.

“Finish it,” she said. “I have another one for your dog.”

Kylo nodded and finished in two bites while Rey dug out a second one from her the poncho’s pocket, unwrapped it and offered it to the dog. Naboo gently took it from her hand, and it was devoured in seconds.

“Where did you get the dog?” Rey said. The pup sat quietly at his side, eyeing Rey with what could be nothing short of caution.

He scratched the dog’s head. Naboo leaned into his touch. On some level, Rey understood the symbiotic relationship that Kylo and his dog seemed to have. She protected him, kept watch and never judged, and he fed and sheltered her in return. Together, neither had to live a completely lonely existence. It was something she would’ve given anything for during all of those backbreaking, solitary years on Jakku.

“She was a stray,” he answered. “I ended up in Coco Town on Coruscant for a while, and she just started following me everywhere. She wouldn’t leave me alone. Even threw a piece of duracrete at her to get her to stop following me.” Clearly lost in the memories, a small smile creeped across his face as he reminisced. “But she made sleeping in an alleyway a little less cold. And she’s the only reason I’m probably alive after a bounty hunter tracked me down. She nearly torn his arm off. We’ve been together ever since.”

“She doesn’t seem that vicious,” Rey said.

“That’s because she doesn’t see you as a threat. If you pull your lightsaber out, I doubt she’ll be as friendly. Besides, I think she likes you,” he replied.

“Can I pet her?”

Kylo nodded. “She likes her ears stroked,” he explained as he demonstrated with one hand.

Rey tentatively reached out, hopeful that the dog would not snap at her or see her as some sort of threat. She’d never been this close to a dog before, and she was still a little leery of the pup despite his reassurances that it would be fine.

She placed her hand on the dog’s head. Its short fur was surprisingly soft. She assumed they it would’ve been coarse and bristly like a happabore’s. But as she reached to stroke Naboo’s ear, her fingertips grazed against Kylo’s, and an image opened in her mind that took her breath away. It wasn’t fully fleshed out. None of them ever were. The future was constantly in motion—something it had taken the past year to understand. But it was there as plain as day. He was beside her. There was no anger, no hostility, no hatred. Only a sense of peace. It felt like solace.

It felt like they were home.

Rey pulled her hand back with a gasp. The cuff had clearly blinded him from the vision, but he obviously knew that the Force has showed her something.

“What did you see?” he whispered, an icy cold worry creeped into his voice.

Her eyes pricked with unshed tears. It was the same vision she had seen in that stone hut when they connected from across the galaxy all that time ago. Then she’d thought it was about defeating Snoke and choosing sides in a war that still waged on all the way to the Outer Rim. No, the vision had nothing to do with those things. It was much more personal than claiming a victory.

“Us,” was all she could manage to say.

Kylo took a step back. Uncertain of what that meant. “Why are you here, Rey?” he cautiously asked.

She grabbed his wrist to keep him from bolting, and he jerked it back as if something had scorched his arm. She reached out again and grabbed it, this time refusing to let go. As she anchored him to that spot on the floor, she said, “Come with me, Ben.”

“I can’t.”

Rey blinked once, and those tears she had been fighting back slid down her cheek. “I didn’t come to Corellia looking for you,” she tried her best to explain. “When the Purge started and Hux ordered all Adept dead, I started searching for them and helping them escape before Anukh could find them. So far, I’ve found nine. Anukh has killed twelve. I can’t let him slaughter any more.”

She closed the distance between them. When he didn’t pull away again, she continued, “I’ve heard the rumors there is a girl living in Shantytown and that she is strong in the Force.”

“I’ve seen her,” Kylo said with a nod. “She uses her powers sometimes, and I don’t think she even realizes she’s doing it.”

“Good!” Rey said as she wiped the tear streaks away. Her search may have just become easier if she could get him to help. “I came here to help her escape, but when I saw you, I knew I was meant to help you as well.”

He reached out for her with is free hand and palmed her cheek, and her eyes slid closed as she savored the contact. His calloused thumb brushed softly against her chin. She had dreamed about moments like this too many times to count. He was tentative and cautious, but his touch was still warm and gentle against her face.

“I’ll help you find the girl,” he sadly replied to her, “but I won’t be going with you.”

Rey’s eyes snapped open and an icy fist clenched tightly inside her gut. After serendipity had brought them together, he was still going to walk away from her.

“The innocent deserve your help, Rey,” he tried his best to explain. “Monsters do not. If the Force brought you to my doorstep, Anukh will be on a few steps behind. That means I should probably pack up my things and try to stow a ride offworld before anyone else figures out I’m here.”

“Ben …”

moved his hand that was cupping her check back to the back of her neck and eased her closer. He leaned down and placed the softest of kisses on her left cheek. “Thank you for your kindness,” he whispered into her ear before pulling back to look her in the eyes, “but the galaxy is better off I just vanish and have nothing to do with the Force.”

“But there’s still good in you,” Rey pleaded. “I’ve felt it.”

“It’s too late for me,” he said as he walked over to the center beam and took his coat off the hook and put it on before grabbing his pack and slinging it over a shoulder. “I’m just a coward that doesn’t need to be saved. But let’s go find the girl.”

She wanted to shake some sense into him. The last time she’d begged him to join her, it ended up with only heartbreak and contempt on both sides. It hurt as much then as it did now. But he was right—they were racing against the clock. They had to find the child before Anukh did, and it would be faster if she accepted his help even if he wouldn’t leave Corellia with her once they located the girl.

Kylo called out to Naboo as he headed out the door, then held it open for Rey. The rain had not relented. In fact, it was still pouring out of the sky in an unrelenting torrent. She tugged her hood back over her head in a poor attempt to keep from getting more soaked. Puddles had gathered in the street where the water sluiced off the corrugated rooftops.

“I think she lives a click or so away,” he said as he headed down the road. Raindrops beaded in his beard. I’m not entirely sure, but you should be able to sense her if we get closer.”

“Lead the way!” she answered.

Rey had no idea where they were heading. She lost count of the number of turns they had made through the streets and alleyways. They were less crowded now that the sun had gone down for the night and the chill settled through the slums. The shanties that had windows glowed from the lights that flickered inside. Naboo stopped and listened with upright ears when she heard what sounded like two dogs fighting in the distance, their snarls and growls calling out from the darkness.

“I think she lives with her mother down this road,” Kylo surmised.

Rey reached out into with the Force, and the child’s signature stood out against the darkness like a beacon in the night. They were close. She could feel it.

“This way!” she called out, taking the lead and heading down an empty alleyway. “She’s not far.”

They wove through the network of alleys. The water from the puddles splashed up on her leggings and through stomped through them. She was certain she would be neither dry nor warm again.

Another turn, another road and they would be there. She felt that in her bones. But as they rounded the corner, the night sky exploded with fire as two ships descended from above. Lightning exploded across the blackness of the night sky and briefly illuminated the ships’ silhouettes. Rey recognized them immediately.

“Inquisitors!” she yelled breaking into a sprint toward their target. “They’re here.”

“We have to hurry!” he answered over the din and ran after her with Naboo in tow.

They were out of breath, gasping for air when Rey stopped in front of a doorway. The honeyed glow from a lantern flickered through the cracks in the frame. There were people inside. Kylo wasted no time and started banging on the door, nothing more than a reclaimed door to an antiquated transport shuttle. Impatient as ever, he pounded on the door a second time when the occupants did not answer.

“Who’s there?” a woman’s voice hesitantly called from the other side.

Kylo shot Rey a quick look as if he didn’t know how to answer the very simple question. Another explosion echoed from nearby. Screams answered in reply.

“We tell her the truth,” Rey shot back. Her lightsaber was already in her hand. They weren’t going down without a fight. “We still have to get back to my ship.”

Kylo turned his attention back to the shut door. “It’s Neberrie,” he answered with his alias. “I’m live nearby. I’m not going to harm you, but your daughter is in danger. Please, open up.”

It seemed like an eternity before the door finally opened. A woman with skin the color of kaffa and milk stood in the doorframe. Her curly dark hair was tied back in a scarf. Behind her, a small girl sat the table, a steaming bowl of porridge in front of her.

“I recognize you from the market,” the woman said.

“I’ve brought my laundry to your shop,” he answered.

He took a step closer only to have the woman raise her hand and grasp the doorframe, further barricading them from crossing the threshold. “Your daughter is danger,” he explained. “That explosion you heard a little while ago? Those are Inquistors. They’re looking for your daughter. If they find her, they will kill her.”

Rey stepped forward from Kylo’s shadow. “I know you have no reason to trust us,” she said. “But we don’t have much time. But I have a ship, and I can take her to safety.”

The woman crossed her arms, a look of skepticism washed across her face. “Why would First Order Inquisitors be looking for my daughter? She’s done nothing wrong.”

It sounded insane, and Rey knew it, two total strangers standing in a doorway asking to take a child with little more than a hunch that danger was a heartbeat away. “I promise, we’re not here to harm you,” she calmly said, “but if you could please let us in, we could explain better in private.”

“There’s not much time,” Kylo added.

The woman stood there a moment before she called over her shoulder to the little, “Asha, get the slugthrower from the wardrobe. If either of them step out of line, shoot them.”

“Yes, Mamma,” the girl answered as she rose from the table and headed to toward the back of the shack.

Her mother took a step back and gestured for them to enter. Kylo had to duck head in order to fit through the low doorway. Unlike his shanty, this one was heated, and the temperature contrast was a welcome surprise.

“I’ll ask you again,” the mother said, “why in the world would the First Order be looking for Asha?”

Rey stepped forward, the light illuminating her face for the first time. “The Supreme Leader ordered them to hunt down and murder anyone who was Force sensitive. They Inquisitors aren’t going to stop until they’re all dead.”

The mother scoffed. “And what would either of you know about the Force?” she demanded.

“Because she’s Rey,” he answered. “She’s the last of the Jedi, and she’s the only hope to make sure the rest of the Force sensitives are not wiped out.”

The mother grabbed the slugthrower from her daughter and pointed it straight and Kylo’s chest. He didn’t even flinch as she powered the weapon up and a charge started to gather in its compressor. “What does Asha have to do with any of this? The Force is nothing but a fairy tale for children. It doesn’t exist.”

Kylo raised his hands to make himself less of a threat. “Because Asha is special like Rey,” he answered. He glanced at the weapon aimed at his chest they back to the mother’s eyes before pointing to his cuffed wrist. Moving ever-so-slow, he deployed the cuff’s release and it clicked open.

Rey gasped as Kylo’s Force signature surged to life around him, flowing through him and surrounding him and strengthening him with its comforting embrace. What once felt dead was now teeming with life. It wasn’t the essence that made him not Kylo Ren, but Ben Solo.

He set the cuff in his palm and within the blink of an eye, the cuff began to levitate above his hand as he willed it to float in the air. It spun around the light from the lantern glinted off its surface. But no one expected a metal spoon to join the cuff and orbit it several times.

Asha stepped out from behind her mother and giggled. “I can make things fly, too!”

“Who are you really, Neberrie?” the mother asked, her weapon now shaking in her grip.

"Are you a Jedi, too?" Asha added.

“I’m no one,” he said with a watery smile. “Just another person like your daughter that’s trying stay alive. But you should trust Rey. She can keep Asha safe.”

“If you think I’m just going to hand her over to you,” the mother warned and pulled Asha behind her, “you have another thing coming. If people find out what she can do, I’ll never see her again.”

The cuff clattered to the ground. Kylo’s concentration was shot. He dropped to a knee to retrieve it, momentarily oblivious to the gun pointed at him. “You’re right,” he quietly said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Rey can’t take your daughter away…”

“Ben,” Rey interrupted. “We’re running out of time.

Kylo gripped the cuff tightly in his hand before answering, “Her mother needs to go with you, too. She needs to be with Asha. The moment you pull a kid from her parent is the moment you start making monsters.”

He wasn’t talking about Asha, Rey realized as a wave of rekindled pain washed off him. It was unfathomable in its depth, and she worried that it would swallow her whole. He did nothing to barricade his memories as if he had set them out for her to see—a gangly adolescent with dark hair standing at the foot of the Falcon’s ramp, an uncle waiting a few meters away, that adolescent, now a young man full of hatred and anger kneeling before his master with complete submission.

_Rise, Kylo Ren,_ she could hear the master say.

It was instantly sobering and correct. He was right. This girl needed her mother. If she were to rip her from her mother’s arms, she would be no better than those whom had taken generations of Jedi from their parents, or the Order stealing infants from their parents to create stormtroopers.

Attachment didn’t make one weak, like the old Jedi had declared. It was what kept one grounded, what made one strong.

She wasn’t going to be responsible for that sort of heartache.

“Ben’s right,” she added. “I’d like both of you to join me. There’s a haven for people like Asha where you both will be safe, and she can understand her relationship with the Force.”

An explosion rocked the shanty. The dishes on the table rattled, and a framed holo clattered to the floor from where they had hung on a wall.

“Please,” Rey begged. “They’re here. They have sensors that will find Asha and kill you both!”

Kylo had still not risen to his feet. He turned the cuff over in his hands. “But we can make it harder for them to find her until you can get offworld,” he thought out loud.

“Asha, come here,” he urged, gesturing to her with his hand.

The girl hesitantly approached him, her mother cautiously keeping watch with her hand still on the gun. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the cuff

“It’s something to keep you safe,” he said. “They won’t be able to see you with your sensors if you wear it.”

He didn’t wait for her mother’s permission before he bent down and snapped his cuff around the girl’s ankle. It was far to big to fit on her tiny wrist. “It’s going to make you feel a little weird,” he explained, “like something is missing.”

The girl nodded and another explosion rocked the neighborhood. The acrid smell of smoke started to waft into the shack. The Inquisitors were close enough now that the sound of blaster fire permeated the thin walls of the dwelling.

“We have to go,” Rey asserted. There wasn’t time to argue. It was now or they all would surely die—or worse—be captured.

The mother nodded her consent and reached for her shawl. Kylo was on his feet and headed to the door, holding it open for the other three before ducking through it himself. Rey led them down the darkened alley back toward Kylo’s shanty in a desperate attempt to retrace her steps back out of slums. As they rounded the corner, three stormtroopers were already blocking the other end of the passage. Asha screamed as they raised their blasters and unleased a fury of fire.

But the blaster bolts never reached them. They came to a stop less than a meter from their faces, sparking and heaving as they tried to overcome the unseen force holding them in place. Rey looked over her shoulder and spotted Kylo holding up an outreached hand. He closed his eyes for a moment in concentration before pulling that arm back then shoving it forward. The blaster bolts reversed course and exploded against the stormtroopers, sending them flying backwards.

“This way!” he yelled, leading them down another route.

They sprinted down the narrow alley and vanished into the shadows, the only thing giving away their location was the sound of their boots against the duracrete. Reaching the next intersection, Kylo stopped and asked, “Where’s your ship?”

“Port of Coronet,” she answered.

Kylo shook his head. “It’s too far, we’ll never make it,” he said. “Shantytown’s already crawling with troopers.”

“Think we can make it back to the market?” Rey shot back.

Kylo shook his head again. “Those explosions that you saw are between us and the market,” he said. “We’ll be running straight toward them.”

“Not if we cut through the laundries,” Asha’s mother suggested. “They’re underground. The tunnel will take us straight there.”

“Are you sure?” Rey asked.

The mother nodded. “I’m in those tunnels every day. It will work,” she said. “Just follow me.”

As they followed the woman, Rey pulled out her commlink and opened a channel to the ship. BB-8 greeted her with a series of chirps.

“Change of plans,” she spoke into the comm. I need you to extract us. Look for the more open space on the northern edge. It’s a market. I’ll start a homing signal.”

Before BB-8 could answer, the mother had already opened the biometric lock with her palm and had vanished into entrance of the laundry with Asha. Rey and Kylo followed suit. Kylo’s blaster was already in his hand as the door closed behind them, Naboo faithfully at his side. Rey reached under her poncho and unclipped her lightsaber. The laundries were cramped, the hallways narrow, opening up to a giant cavern of steam and churning washers. Her eyes burned from the moment they entered the room, the scent of bleach hung heavily in the air to where it hurt to breathe. Weaving their way past the matrons sorting the mountains of linens that supplied Corellia’s hotels and hospitals with a nonstop supply of clean white bedding.

It took several minutes to reach the market. Fires burned in the distance. Three ships flew overhead with floodlights bathing various streets in a harsh, blue light.

“There’s my ship!” Rey yelled, pointing upward as it began to descend toward the square. Debris scattered everywhere.

A tarp blew across the ground, colliding with the butcher’s tent. But as the ship touched down, the market erupted in blaster fire, and the over head floodlights turned their attention toward them. The ramp dropped open. Rey deflected three shots with her lightsaber before yelling, “Get in!”

Kylo unleased a series of shots toward the stormtroopers, felling two of them as he provided cover for Asha and her mother to enter the ship.

But then he stopped and took an unbalanced step backward. Surprise spread across his face, and he let a small “Oh.”

Rey stopped her ascent into the ship. Three small splotches of red blossomed on his tunic like angry red flowers where projectiles—something so small, sneaky yet solid that neither of them had detected—had struck him in the chest.

“Ben!” she cried out, rushing to his side.

“I’m fine,” he shot back as he fired off another round, dropping the troopers that had shot him.

She could feel his strength wane. Those weren’t slugs meant to kill. They were microbots that delivered poison to incapacitate.

“Change of plans,” she said grabbing him around the waist before his knees could buckle. “You’re coming with me after all.”

“It’s superficial,” Kylo said, his voice slurring. “I don’t need..”

“Up the ramp, you stubborn nerfherder,” she said as she led him up the gangplank when he offered no resistance.

Naboo barked from the bottom of the ramp, obviously worried where Rey was stealing her companion way.

“You too,” Rey added to the dog. “C’mon, Naboo.”

The dog didn’t give it a second thought and ran up the ramp before Rey closed it.

“No time for clearance codes, BB-8,” Rey yelled toward the cockpit as she wrestled with Kylo’s growing deadweight. He was fading fast, staggering beside her and rapidly losing his battle with consciousness. “Rapid jump now!”

The ship lurched, ears popped and the ship jumped into hyperspace when it was barely off the ground. It took everything in her to keep Kylo from crashing to the floor, and Naboo let out a plaintive whine as she adapted to the jump. Entering hyperspace at such a low altitude was madness, and she knew it. But it was the only way she knew that could prevent a First Order missile from taking the ship down. It was reckless. It was insane. No one in their right mind would do it.

Then again, she’d seen Ben’s father do something equally as reckless when he’d launched the Falcon into hyperspace from the hanger of another ship.

And it had worked. In her mind, she pictured Han smiling and nodding at the maneuver. But that wouldn’t be what he would be smiling most about.

Rey eased Han Solo’s lost son into the waiting medibunk. His legs were heavy as she lifted each onto the bed. His arm slipped off the bunk, and Naboo licked at his hand. “He’s going to be okay,” she assured the dog as if she could understand her as she pulled off his muddy boots.

His Force signature was still strong. His heart beat steadily, and his chest rose and fell with slowly as the last tendrils of consciousness slipped away. The poison wasn’t going to kill him, though she suspected he would wake to a pounding headache when everything was said and done. She had time to heal him. They wouldn’t be reaching their rendezvous for nearly another twelve hours, enough time to for him to sleep it off and buy her some time to figure out how she was going to explain that she took him with her even though he was dead-set against it.

Until then, she would tend to his injuries. She peeled off his pack and soaked coat and set them on the floor besde before opening his shirt to locate the microbots.

Ben—she refused to think of him as Kylo Ren anymore—groaned as she pulled the first missile from his skin. A rivulet of blood beaded up where it had injected him. She repeated the process two more times before tearing open a saline-soaked gauze sponge and wiping the blood away and applying bacta dressings.

He mumbled something wordlessly, trapped somewhere between dreams and lucidity. Rey brushed away the hair that had spilled onto his face, lingering for a moment to trace the silvery scar that crossed his face, the mark she had given him when their paths had first crossed. At that time, she had wanted him dead, wanting nothing more than to take his life in return for killing his father. Yet now, she wanted nothing more than to count him among the found in her journeys to shepherd the Adept to safety.

She needed to meditate to locate and pull the poison from his system. It wasn’t something she had truly mastered, but she had to try anyway. But first she paused to take in the miracle before her. Her thoughts went once again to the weathered smuggler she had all those years before who wanted more than for his son to return. Everything since then had led up to this moment.

Rey leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“I found him,” she said to no one, hoping that somewhere, somehow Han Solo would hear her from the World Beyond.

Ben Solo was headed home.

o.o.o.o

Everything ached, and his limbs felt like they were weighted down with molten lead as Kylo slowly woke. His chest throbbed with a dull ache, as if something had punched him hard with a punishing body blow. Unfortunately, the worst was just starting. Thank the Maker the room was illuminated with not much more than the soft glow from a single light nestled in the alcove above. His headache blossomed behind his eyes, and he felt sick to his stomach.

He wasn’t quite sure exactly how he ended up in a medibunk in hyperspace—the subtle rumble of the lightspeed accelerators were a dead giveaway that he was no longer on Corellia. Somewhere along the line, someone had taken his coat, his boots and even his shirt. He had no idea where his blaster had gone.

It had to be Rey. Inquisitors would not have covered him in a quilted blanket while he slept.

Not quite ready to open his eyes, he reached out in the Force and sensed Naboo sleeping in the room. He reached out a bit more, and he knew Rey was only a little further way. He could recognize her distinct signature anywhere.

“I’m right here,” she quietly announced as if she could feel him searching.

Kylo slowly opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep out of one with the palm of his hand. His mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton wool. As she closed the distance between them, he asked, “Where am I?”

She was holding a water bottle in her hand. “The Condor,” she answered.

He nodded. Of course, he was on a ship, but he wanted to know where they were heading. It was the last place he wanted to be—trapped in space, at the mercy of others, headed to somewhere he didn’t want to go. He hated feeling this weak and vulnerable.

“I told you I wasn’t leaving with you,” he spat out, itching for an argument.

Rye set the water bottle on the console beside her. “Well, it was either leave with the Inquistors, leave with me, or leave in a body bag at that point,” she shot back.

“What do you mean those were the only choices?” he said as he slow sat up and instantly regretted. His head swam, and his vision blurred momentarily. “There’s always another choice.”

“Not if they shot little droid things into your chest full of poison,” she explained. “You dropped like a stunned happabore, and felt about as heavy as one too.”

Kylo raked his hand through his tangled hair. She was right—those were the only choices, and she decided not to let him die. The anger melted away as he thought of her dragging his worthless soul into her ship.

“Well that explains why I feel like I was run over by a speeder,” he sighed. “Immobulum can knock out a gundark.”

Rey handed him the water bottle. He took a small sip and waited to see if his stomach would revolt at the intrusion. He was already queasy enough and didn’t want to make the nausea worse.

“I tried to extract as much of it as I could from you,” she sheepishly explained, “but I’m really not all that good at using the Force to heal.”

He smiled and took another sip of water. “That’s okay,” he answered. “Neither am I.”

Rey’s face lit up with a small smile. “But I was even worse at saving your shirt,” she quipped. “The blood will come out, no problem. But there’s nothing I can do about the three big holes in the front.”

He handed the bottle back to her. “Don’t worry,” he replied. “I’ve worn worse.”

“There’s a pullover over on the desk,” she said. “I pack extra clothes for extractions. Anyway, it looks like it should fit you. If not, you can rummage through the bin.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Speaking of extractions, that girl—Asha—she and her mother made it out?”

Rey nodded, “They’re sleeping in the crew cabin.”

“Good,” Kylo said. "I’m glad they got out in once piece.”

“So am I,” she replied. “Look, we still have several hours before we reach the rendezvous. I have some work I have to get done, and you still look beat. Why don’t you rest, and I’ll be up front if you need anything.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he answered, easing back into the bed as Rey exited the medbay. Kylo couldn’t remember the last time he could simply lay back and do nothing. He should be planning a way to escape, that little corner of his mind kept saying, but he had no energy to do anything. He’d blame the residual Immobulum, because all he wanted to do was sleep. Naboo nudged his hand with her nose. It was cold and wet and oddly reassuring. She’d keep watch like she always did.

“I’m okay,” he said to his dog as she licked his hand before settling back down on the floor.

o.o.o.o.

When Kylo woke a few hours later, the headache was finally gone. Naboo was nowhere to be found. He whistled for her once, and when she didn’t appear, he finally sat up and swung his legs off the bed. The water bottle rested on the desk next to the shirt she had promised. He eased himself to a stand and padded across the floor, the tiling cool against his bare feet.

His coat hung over the back of the chair, and his pack and blaster rested neatly beside each other on the seat. As promised, a new shirt rested on the desktop. He unfolded it and tugged the pullover over his head and slid his arms into the sleeves. It was soft and stretchy, and unsurprisingly black. But he didn’t expect the pair of trousers, a loamy color of autumn leaves, and a pair of socks to be hiding beneath the shirt. Without thinking twice, he peeled off the pants he was wearing—they were so grungy and could likely stand on their own—and stepped into the new pair. They gapped a bit at the waist, and the cuffs were a centimeter or two too short at his feet. They were clean, they didn’t smell bad, and he could hide the short length when tucked them into his boots. But for now, he was happy to leave the boots where the sat on the floor and head out in search of Rey without them.

The passageway was dimmed, the footlights of the floor illuminated the way toward what looked like the crew cabin and a darkened galley. He followed the hallway a little farther until he reached the cruiser’s cockpit. Brilliant streams of light streamed past the window as the ship cruised through hyperspace.

Rey looked up from the pilot’s seat as he stepped into the cockpit. Beside her, Naboo greeted him with a wagging tail. An orange and white Bee-Bee unit chirped a cursory hello before disengaging from the navcomputer and rolled passed him, running over his foot in the process.

Kylo threw a glance over his shoulder before turning back to Rey. “Was that the droid everyone was…”

“That would be the one,” Rey answered, gesturing to the co-pilot’s seat beside her.

He sunk into the seat and said, “Thanks for the clothes.”

She smiled for a moment before glancing down to his bare feet. “I thought I left a pair of socks for you,” she noted.

Rotating the chair toward her, he answered, “You did. Just haven’t put them on yet.” Naboo leaned into his leg, and absently scratched her ear. “How long was I out?” he added.

“Since we talked? About four hours,” she answered. “We left Corellia almost twelve hours ago. Like I said, I didn’t do a good job pulling the drug from your system.”

“So now what?” he asked.

Kylo knew that hyperspace was just a brief respite for whatever waited for him on the other side of the jump, and it terrified him. While as much as he had spent the last year trying to out run Hux and goons, he knew that his fate would not be much better if the Resistance apprehended him. If he was lucky, he’d be staring at four walls of a cell the rest of his life. But he knew he deserved far worse of a fate than to be locked up the rest of his life. It was likely a summary execution if either faction were to capture him. He was tired of running, but he wasn’t quite ready to die.

An alarm beeped from the dash, and Rey entered a few commands into the navcomputer. She eased a lever up and the stars around were no longer smudges and came into focus. A small armada popped up in front of them as their journey through hyperspace came to an end.

Kylo didn’t recognize the mothership. It certainly wasn’t anything standard-issue for the Republic. Several rag-tag smaller fighters and shuttles zipped around it. Whatever it was, it likely older than both of them. It had seen its fair share of battle. Carbon scoring on its hull told a story of past skirmishes.

“I’m not going to the Resistance,” he said, trying his best to hide the fear that he knew was creeping into his voice.

“That’s not the Resistance,” Rey calmly replied looking out at the giant ship before them. “That’s the Amity.”

“The pirate vessel?” Kylo said, thinking out loud. He’d heard its name many times—first as a child, then later as an adult. It had been a ship of legend, not something he ever thought was real. It was the stuff childhood stories were made of. Sure, there were smuggling and pirate networks that lurked in the underbelly of the galaxy. The First Order paid them no mind. The pirate factions dealt in spice and worthless, outdated weaponry and transport. As long as they stayed out of the way, they weren’t a threat to anyone.

“Would you be looking for a handful of Force sensitives on a pirate ship?” Rey quipped.

It was no different than what he’d been doing for a year, only it was on a grander scale. The adept were hiding among the refuse. Of course, Anukh and the Inquisitors would never imagine to look for them among the junk and contraband that the pirate world dealt and traded. The pirate nations were best at remaining hidden, always avoiding detection as they traded illegally on the black markets of dozens of worlds.

Out of sight, out of mind. It was brilliant.

“Salutations, Condor!” a man’s voice crackled over the comm as they neared the opening to the landing bay. The voice sounded oddly familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. “I hope your hunting expedition was successful.”

Rey leaned forward and spoke into the vocoder, “Target acquired. But I come bearing additional packages.”

“I look forward to seeing what you have found,” the voice replied. “You’re scheduled to land in bay three. We’ll see you when you arrive. Amity out.”

Rey turned to Kylo and said, “BB-8 went to wake Asha and her mother.” She reached out and grasp his hand for a moment. “Please trust me—no Resistance. So, go get your belongings and I’ll meet you and Naboo in at the ramp as soon as we land.”

o.o.o.o.

Kylo’s heart was in his throat as Rey, Asha and her mother, and he gathered and the entrance to the ship. Naboo stood at his side as the ramp descended and they one-by-one exited the ship. The hanger was enormous. It held ships of many sizes—something that looked like an A-wing in a previous life, several worn cruisers, and something that resembled a yacht.

But one ship all but made his heart stop. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to vomit or vanish. Both seemed likely possibilities. The Millennium Falcon sat silently among the larger vessels. Of course, he shouldn’t be surprised. Rey had likely flown it. Yet the mere sight of it was enough to remind him that while he could outrun the Resistance and the First Order, his father was the one thing that he could never shrug. What he had done was inexcusable, unforgiveable. And here was his father’s ship to remind him of everything he had thrown away for nothing more than a fleeting empire of dirt.

Rey must’ve sensed his apprehension. Her hand laced with his he made his descent from the ship and she gave his had the smallest of squeezes. Leaning in she added, “It’s going to be alright.”

A small landing party greeted them in the hangar. A trio of denizens quickly welcomed Asha and her mother with warm embraces before ushering them away. But Kylo found himself rooted to one spot on the floor. He wasn’t sure about anything. Staring up at the Falcon, he asked, “Is the Wookiee here?” Surely, if the Falcon was docked in the hangar, Chewbacca was nearby. His hand absently went to his left flank where the Wookiee had blasted a hole in side. He had it coming, no doubt about it. Chewie’s aim was usually better than that, and he still wondered why he hadn’t taken aim at his head.

“No,” a voice called from the parting crowd. Kylo recognized it anywhere. “But I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know you’re finally safe.”

Kylo felt like he was standing in front of a ghost. It had been over ten years—perhaps even pushing nearly twenty—since he’d last seen Lando Calrissian. Somewhere along the line, his father’s friend had become an old man. He stride was a little slower, perhaps a bit more stooped. He walked with a limp now. His hair and matching mustache were greyer and sparser. Yet the one thing that remained consistent was his flamboyant wardrobe. This time it was a mustard-colored silken shirt paired with a dark purple cape the color of an Alderaani eggplant. For a man pushing eighty, he was a stylish as ever.

“Welcome home, Ben,” Lando added with a smile.

Kylo’s eyes burned with the prickle of unshed tears. Overwhelmed by the statement, he could not fathom being welcomed anywhere with open arms after everything he had committed in his foolhardy devotion to the Dark Side. Surely Lando knew how Han Solo had perished. And yet the old man stood there offering sacred hospitality.

He felt his face flush and his ears to match. He couldn’t look the man he once referred to as Uncle Lando in the eye. Not now, not after everything. Starting at his feet, Kylo answered, “I don’t have a home.”

“That’s nonsense,” Lando countered. The old man gestured to the blaster peeking out of Ben’s pack. “I’m glad you found the safe deposit box in Cloud City. But I meant every word in the message that led you there. You are always welcome here, no matter what you have done in the past. You’re family, Ben.”

Kylo closed his eyes for a moment as he recalled the recorded message and accompanying passkey he found hidden in one of childhood hidey-holes he explored when he and a search party rummaged to the Falcon after it crashlanded on Starkiller Base. He never told a soul he had tucked the key away in his glove.

_Hey sport, if you are watching this, you’re probably in a heap of trouble. This passkey belongs to a lockbox at the Central Bank Of Cloud City. It includes alias credentials and the passcode to retrieve the contents. If you ever need help, and don’t want to call your father, come and find me. We’ll sort it out._

As Ben opened his eyes, twin tears streaked down his cheeks. The message had been recorded a lifetime ago, when Lando was still young and his father was still alive. “When did you hide the blaster?” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“When you were very little,” Lando said. “I received a receipt after you retrieved it a few about a year ago. It was the only way we knew you were still alive, and I’m thankful that you found it.”

“I don’t belong here, Lando,” he replied.

Lando closed the distance and wrapped him in an embrace. Somewhere along the line, he’d grown taller than the old man. He’d barely reached his shoulder the last time they had hugged. Slowly he found himself returning the embrace as some of the tension began to ease.

“And I say you do,” Lando answered in return. They stood there for several moments before Calrissian stepped back and added, “It’s been a long journey. I’m sure Rey would be happy to show you to your quarters. Common meal will be served in the main dining hall at nineteen-hundred. That should give you enough time to get settled. I hope you’ll join us.”

Kylo felt Rey’s arm encircle his waist to lead him out of the hanger. His nose was running, and he swiped at hit with the back of one hand before he answered, “Okay.”

o.o.o.o

After a long hydroshower in the fresher, Kylo had every intention of joining Lando for Common Meal. He’d told Rey he needed some time to himself and that he’d find his way there. But as he’d wound down the passageway to the dining hall, he grew more anxious with every step. That cowardly fight-or-flight reflex, perhaps the only thing that had managed to keep him alive all these years screamed for him to run. The Amity was enormous, as big as some of the Order’s Demidestroyers. It didn’t matter if there were kilometers of passageways onboard, he still felt extremely claustrophobic. It wouldn’t take much effort to steal a shuttle. One jump to lightspeed, and he could vanish once again into the cosmos.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been wandering with Naboo in stride with him, but somehow he found himself at the base of the Falcon, staring up at its open gangplank. The interior called to him, and he silently slipped inside, his dog in tow.

He knew the way to the cockpit like he knew the back of its hand. Its halls were still worn and grimy. The tiling was cracked, and the smell of engine grease brought him back to a simpler time. He wound his way to the cockpit and settled into the copilot seat. He didn’t dare sit in his father’s chair. That was one thing he knew he didn’t deserve. Naboo signed as she lay down in the space between the two seats before quickly dozing off.

It was peaceful there in the dark. Not much had changed in the years since he last sat in that chair. The toggles were as worn as ever. The wiring was just this side of fried. And if he closed his eyes, he could imagine his old man was seated beside him teaching him the idiosyncrasies of the vessel. The Falcon had been his older sibling, he long thought, something his father loved dearly, something he always felt vied for his father’s attention.

There was a time in his life when he wanted to make the Falcon simply vanish. After his parents had sent him away, he wanted to make his father hurt like he did. So when he’d heard that the Irving boys had stolen it all those years ago, he’d snickered to himself. It had seemed like payback, and he had been glad the Falcon was gone.

What a kriffing fool he had been.

“If you’re planning on bolting, I’d boost a ship that no one recognizes,” Lando quietly said as he entered the cockpit. Too lost in his thoughts, he neither sensed Calrissian and he’d drawn near nor had he even heard him enter. “Pretty sure both sides know what the Falcon looks like.”

Kylo crossed his ankle over his knee and slouched back in the copilot’s chair. “Not thinking of boosting anything,” he said. “Don’t even know where I would go at this point.”

Lando eased into the pilot’s chair and swiveled it until he was facing Kylo. “That’s good,” he said. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Kylo answered. He picked at a hangnail for a few second before adding, “I’m in a lot of trouble, Lando.”

Calrissian nodded. Obviously there was no denying that. “That you are,” he said. “But I meant what I said. You’re welcome here. And we’ll work it out.”

“You know what I did to him, right?” Kylo asked. He still couldn’t bring himself to even say his father’s name.

“I do.”

A pair of technicians walked below on the tarmac, a trio of service droids scurrying behind. Things apparently never slowed down on the Amity. He watched a shuttle taxi toward the hatch before taking off before he said, “Why are you doing this then?”

Lando sighed. “A long time ago, I betrayed Han, too.”

“But you didn’t kill him. I did.” Kylo said, pointing out the most glaring difference of all. He’d heard the story many times about how his parents had been betrayed on Cloud City before he was even born. They had never mentioned Lando by name, but it didn’t take much to connect the dots and realize his beloved uncle had been the one that had turned them over to the Empire.

“I know,” Lando replied. “But I betrayed him just the same, but my actions could have easily led to his death. But your old man found a way to forgive me, so I find it only fitting that I find a way to forgive you. It’s what he would have wanted. It’s what your mother would have wanted.”

They both sat in silence for several minutes before Lando added, “It’s one of the reasons I decided to help Rey find the Adept. I can keep people safe. My years as the Cloud City administrator proved that to me.”

“After Rey found the first two and shuttled them here, we both realized that each extraction may bring us closer to finding you. That’s she started shepherding. She’s been searching for you.”

It was overwhelming after all of the years feeling like everyone in his life had cast him aside like garbage to suddenly realize that there were people in the galaxy that actually wanted to find him. That void in his heart where his family had once been suddenly felt filled to the brim, and it was both comforting and terrifying at the same time.

Kylo didn’t bother to wipe the tears away as the silently started to flow.

“I miss him,” he confessed to the closest thing he had left to family and the tears he had buried years ago began to flow and he was finally able to mourn his father.

“I know, kid,” Lando answered. “It’s going to be a rough journey, but you’re not alone anymore.”

Kylo nodded, and for the first time in over a decade, he believed that.


End file.
